TCS bags 10-year deal with Insper in Brazil, plans to invest $8.7 mn to innovate across South America

TCS will offer its customers across the region exclusive access to its research and innovation capabilities, combined with Insper’s academic expertise, ecosystem, labs, and expert resources.

Tata Consultancy Services on October 30 announced that it has signed a 10-year strategic partnership with Insper, one of Brazil’s leading higher education and research institutions. The IT services major will be investing about 50 million Brazilian Real (Around $8.7 million) for the collaboration that aims to innovate around technologies like AI, GenAI, IoT and spatial computing in South America.

This partnership will involve academic research work, development of technology prototypes, and organization of seminars, hackathons and technology talks using the TCS Pace methodology for innovation at scale, the company said in a statement.

TCS will offer its customers across the region exclusive access to its research and innovation capabilities, combined with Insper’s academic expertise, ecosystem, labs, and expert resources.

This will benefit across sectors such as banking, financial services, insurance, energy and resources, manufacturing, healthcare and life sciences, among others.

The proposed research initiatives include satellite-based geo-sensing to enhance crop yields in Brazil, reducing the down time in offshore oil rigs, and using AI to accelerate new drug development process to name a few.

Bruno Rocha, Country Head at TCS Brazil, said, “The common idea between the two institutions is to establish a bridge with the market to serve companies with different profiles more effectively.”

“This partnership will allow us the access to academic expertise, ability to collaborate with the business and engineering capabilities Insper possesses, build a collaboration space for our customers to visit and bring the business, environmental and societal changes in Brazil for the better through our customers,” Rocha added.

Rodrigo Amantea, head of the Paulo Cunha Innovation and Entrepreneurship Hub at Insper, said, “This collaboration with TCS reinforces Insper's mission to promote innovation and transformation in Brazil. The development of engineering and computing projects has been one of the pillars of our institution, and this partnership will place us at the forefront of developing solutions for real-time company problems. It will also help offer new learning and experience opportunities for our students.”

TCS has been operating in Brazil for over two decades and recently launched a new delivery center in Londrina, Paraná, with the aim of creating more than 1,600 new job opportunities over the next five years. With operations in Londrina, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, TCS services over 140 clients in the region across industries such as banking, insurance, mining, retail, and telecommunications.